BIRDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 



27 



Valley to the Moroto district of northeastern Uganda. This race 

 is darker above and below than poecilosterna. This difference in 

 color cannot be interpreted as correlated in any way with environ- 

 mental differences in humidity, as the dark viassaica lives in the 

 Taru desert, which is certainly as arid as the scrubby wilderness 

 of Tanaland where the paler poecilosterna is found. 



The young birds, quite different from the adults, have the upper- 

 parts much more mottled and spotted, lack the gray on the crown, 

 and have the feathers dark fuscous-brown medially, laterally broadly 

 edged with rufous-tawny, and tipped with paler tawny. Among 

 themselves they show great variation, some birds being generally 

 pale yellowish tawny, while others are chiefly dark brownish. 



Zedlitz 2^ has briefly described the immature plumage of this lark 

 but writes that the underparts are as in the adults, except for the 

 fact that there are round black specks on the throat and that the 

 rufous-brown cheeks are bordered by a line of indistinct blackish 

 dots. In the birds examined the blackish-brown spots are present 

 on the upper breast and lower throat but not on the auriculars ex- 

 cept in one case. Zedlitz writes, however, that the young of poecilo- 

 sterna bear a great general resemblance to the adults of fischeH^ a 

 statement with which T cannot agree, as the latter is so very much 

 darker, more rufous above and below, and so obviously barred above 

 as to be distinguished at a glance. 



The size variations of the pink-breasted singing lark are consid- 

 erable, as may be seen from the measurements given in table 2. 



Table 2. — Measurements of 19 specimens of Mirafra poecilosterna poecilosterna 



'Jouru. fiir Orn., 1916, pp. 55-56. 



